Picking up small objects has traditionally been a difficult task. It requires an individual to bend over or squat down constantly and there is little guarantee that the unaided eye will locate all of the objects the individual wishes to pick up.
In many instances it is important to locate and pick up all small objects in an area. Small hardware such as screws, nuts and bolts on airport runways, aircraft carrier decks, warehouse floors, or other industrial settings pose both an injury risk to individuals and a risk to delicate and expensive hardware such as a jet engine which may pick up such small objects, causing damage to interior mechanisms.
Bullet casings are also small and difficult to pick up, however firing ranges must regularly locate and pick up large quantities of bullet casings.
It is equally important to locate and pick up all nuts (e.g., acorns, almonds, walnuts, chestnuts, hickory nuts, hazelnuts, macadamia nuts, pecans, sweet gum balls and the like) around nut trees or in similar areas. Thoroughness in this use case maximizes returns and profitability.
A variety of machines have been developed to pick up such small items. Generally, such machines are large and cumbersome such as those disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,679,133; 3,148,493; 4,364,222; 3,387,442; 3,475,889; 3,530,655; 3,579,969; and 3,591,948. These machines are all large production harvesters that might be used for a farm having hundreds of acres of nut trees.
Other devices, such as those disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,025,620 and 5,168,692, provide nut harvesters which are manually operable by an individual. While usable by an individual and efficient in small areas, such devices have a defined and limited effective width for picking up small objects, necessitating many passes to pick up all objects in a given area. Furthermore, such devices are limited to only the use they have been designed for (i.e., picking up small items) and are not configured to be readily expandable or adaptable for additional uses. Such devices cannot readily attach to other objects and may tip over when the collection basket is removed.
Given the foregoing, what are needed are expandable and adaptable devices for picking up small items. Furthermore, devices are needed which are expandable but remain manually operable by an individual.